Sufficient Interest

Section 31 of the Senior Courts Act 1981 provides that no application for judicial review may be made without the leave (permission) of the High Court, and that the court shall not grant leave to make such an application unless it considers that the applicant has a sufficient interest in the matter to which the application relates. This statutory standing test is applied at the permission stage and is intended to filter out claims brought by applicants with no real connection to the decision under challenge.

The sufficient interest requirement sits alongside the High Court's other case-management powers under section 31, including the power to refuse relief, even where a public body has acted unlawfully, if it appears highly likely that the outcome for the applicant would not have been substantially different had the conduct complained of not occurred. In practice the courts have interpreted 'sufficient interest' generously for claimants raising genuine public law issues, extending it to representative bodies and campaign groups as well as directly affected individuals.